People and Processes

Personnel development

People development is a source of competitive advantage and therefore a key factor in the future success of an organization. As working life and organizational environments change, the importance of continuous staff development increases. Without continuous learning, both organizationally supported and autonomous, an organization’s ability to change and respond to customer challenges will fade. This is why staff development has moved from a normal support function to a strategic enabler of competitive advantage.

In many organizations, the HRD function is seen as part of the normal HR management package, including HR processes, payroll, health and safety, well-being at work, career planning and recruitment. However, staff development has become increasingly important as management increasingly recognises the importance of the development function and learning.

Why should personnel development be its own strategically led entity?

The competitiveness of organizations is increasingly dependent on the skills of their personnel, and in particular on the continuous renewal of skills. Development and learning are issues that organizations need to be able to manage in a coordinated way. HRD has therefore increasingly moved from being a provider of training to ensuring and managing the learning capacity of personnel. Increasingly, learning in an organization must serve the development of strategic capability.

Personnel development is also a somewhat outdated word. The pair of words easily has connotations of top-down action. Modern personnel development is more about creating structures and processes for continuous learning and development, starting with the personnel themselves.

Current themes in personnel development

The themes for personnel development are the same as those for organizational development. Human resource development is about identifying and creating competitive advantage. Therefore, the current themes of human resource development are very similar to the strategic challenges facing organizations. Digitalisation of operations, skills disruption, sustainability, new ways of working, etc. are all topics on the agenda of almost every development professional. Similarly, from a management perspective, the challenge for HRD professionals is to translate the results of organizational learning into business language. HRD professionals need to be able to make visible the link between the development of staff competencies and the demonstration of the company’s competitive advantage.

The future of human resources development

As the way we do our work becomes increasingly skilled and creative, the ability to keep staff skilled, motivated and productive becomes ever more important. This is the fundamental reason why staff development will be so important in the future. Continuous renewal is, by definition, a very big challenge for every employee. Few of us have the energy to actively and independently pursue continuous development. That is why support and development structures must be in place and in good order in organizations. In the face of constant fierce competition, if personnel do not renew themselves, the organization will not succeed.